


how Graham O'Brien found something worth giving up his sandwiches for

by LadyofLothal



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Bugs & Insects, Fictober, Gen, October Prompt Challenge, Prompt Fic, harm to animals is a tag why isn't kindness to animals also a tag, kindness to animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 09:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26849788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyofLothal/pseuds/LadyofLothal
Summary: The Thirteenth Doctor and her Fam do a good deed, even if it takes Graham a little while to get there--Fictober 2020 day 3 catch-up, based on the prompt "bugs"
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Graham O'Brien, Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan & Graham O'Brien & Ryan Sinclair
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11
Collections: Fictober 2020





	how Graham O'Brien found something worth giving up his sandwiches for

**Author's Note:**

> I've fallen behind on Fictober, oh no!  
> have this cute, incredibly random, and kinda ridiculous story to make up for it  
> and also shout-out to [bravest_person_in_Wonderland](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravest_person_in_Wonderland/) and [dragonwings948](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonwings948) for their help on a few key aspects of this, mainly connected to my still-greatly-lacking knowledge of British colloquialism.

“Doc… look I know I’m likely gonna sound like either a numpty or a cad for asking this, but… is this entirely necessary?”

The Doctor spun on her heel with remarkable fluidity and slowness, managing not to dislodge any of her passengers or slip on the treacherous surface beneath her feet as she fixed him with a glare.

“ _Yes_ , Graham, it _is_. For one, we’re visitors here and it’s only right we help out the locals, and for two, it’s the right thing to do.” She cocked an eyebrow and craned her neck at him reproachfully. “You wouldn’t _really_ wan'ta just leave them all here without any help, would you??”

“She’s right, ya know, Graham.” Yaz slowly came to a halt near the Doctor and swiveled her body carefully to look at him. “It really wouldn’t be very nice to just leave them all here like this, not when we can help them and it’s not costing us anything.”

“Not costing us anything but the precious few hours of nice weather! And potentially all my sarnies!” Graham held up the picnic basket he had been carrying for emphasis on this last point. “These sit in here much longer, they’re gonna get soggy, and then none o’ you will want to eat 'em, and that’ll be a whole load of lunch wasted!”

“ _Time machine_ , Graham." The Doctor threw out her hands and spread her fingers apart in an exaggeratedly slow and cautious version of her usual gestures. "If the sunlight runs out before we’re through here, we’ll just run back to the TARDIS and hop ahead to the next nice day, no biggie!”

“But…” Graham knew he was losing this battle, and even worse, he was feeling horrible for even arguing about it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help those in need; he felt just as obligated to do good where he could in the universe as much as the others. But he couldn’t help but shudder as he watched the Doctor finish her trek across the short, shallow stream, pause at the bank to allow her host of tiny passengers to disembark, and then hop back to the opposite shore to pick up a new load.

Graham had one last protest as the Doctor extended her arm to the ground and a perfectly orderly single-file line of beetles filed up it, across her shoulders, and then swarmed across her body till her whole coat was covered in them.

“Look, why don’t we go have our lunch now, then go back to the TARDIS, pop back to here, and help them then?”

“Bit selfish tho, innit granddad? Leaving them here for at least one version of the timeline so we can go fill our bellies even if we do eventually come back to help?” Now even Ryan was against him, and piling up his newfound knowledge of temporal metaphysics that he’d gotten from that pop-up book the Doctor had found in the TARDIS library in leverage. Which was completely unfair, in Graham's opinion. He watched as the young man began to walk across the stream, stiff-legged. His hoodie was pulled up and the drawstrings tied tightly, the ends of his sleeves clenched in his fists, ensuring that the only skin exposed on his whole body was his face, an area his bugs made sure to avoid, mainly amassing on his back where he was least likely to feel their tickly legs through the layers of his clothing.

Graham finally sighed dejectedly. He knew what he had to do. He’d known since they had passed this little stream and seen the army of shiny, chitin-clad travelers standing on one side, and the Doctor had carried on a chittery, scritchy dialogue with what appeared to be their chief before revealing to the others that all the bugs needed to cross to the other side to reach their wintering hollow, but that the stream had formed since the last time they had passed through and they had no idea how to cross it. They had just been considering sending across a brigade of volunteers to essentially make a living bridge of bodies for the others to cross on, but the truth of it was that they had no idea how many of the forerunners would survive this plan, and how many would inevitably be drowned. The Doctor and Yaz had been openly horrified at this, and the Doctor had immediately volunteered to help ferry them across on her own body. Yaz had promptly agreed as well, and even Ryan had found a way to join them, despite his long-standing discomfort around bugs.

Graham knew he was being selfish, and rude, and really outright mean about the whole thing. It was just the idea of _all those sandwiches going to waste--_

Graham halted that train of thought before it could go any further. He shut down his brain, clenched his jaw, and without allowed himself to consider the loss, flipped his picnic basket completely upside down, disposing of all the food within in one swift, devastating motion.

He allowed himself one last look at the small pile that was meant to be lunch, and when he raised his head, saw the other three had all stopped at various points across the stream and now were staring at him. He held the now-empty basket up somewhat feebly. “They can ride across in here. Make it a little quicker, maybe, since we can carry more at a time.”  
The loss of the sandwiches was almost worth the looks on the faces of the others. Ryan nodded his head approvingly, Yaz looked genuinely touched, and even the Doctor gazed at him with a smile of looked an awful lot like pride. 

The basket as mass transport turned out to be a fantastic idea, and the team of three humans and one Time Lord got the population of bugs across the stream safely in what everyone agreed was an amazingly short amount of time. Once they were done, Graham even offered the sandwiches (which he now felt no remorse for sacrificing) to the bugs, and they accepted gladly, each taking a small snippet of bread and meat in their mandibles till every last crumb had been distributed. The chief beetle thanked the Doctor in his skittery language, bowing his antennae in a series of movements that seemed to be a formal farewell ritual, and she bid them goodbye in turn, mimicking the movements the chief had made with her index fingers raised to her forehead in lieu of her own antennae.

The atmosphere was growing dark as the quartet set off towards the TARDIS. Despite not being able to eat their picnic lunch in the beautiful glade the Doctor had described to them when they first arrived on the planet, none of them felt particularly upset, and they all agreed that the sunset was gorgeous, one of the best they’d seen in a long while. Even Graham didn’t mind the discomfort of his growling stomach as he caught sight of the blue box in the distance, though his mind was already exploring the various potentials of what snacks could be found in the TARDIS galley. Helping people just left you with a feeling that even a little hunger couldn't beat.

**Author's Note:**

> for some reason, when I was looking through the handful of prompt lists I've gathered to draw Fictober inspiration from this afternoon, I saw the prompt "bugs" and IMMEDIATELY got the idea of Thirteen carrying bugs across some sort of treacherous situation to help them get from one place to another (the way some people get together and help frogs cross busy roads during breeding season). and then... the rest of this happened.  
> I think this might actually be the most dialogue I have ever written in a story, though my fic with Thirteen and Romana _might_ have it beat, I'm not quite sure...  
> I hope y'all enjoyed this random goofiness, I really want to get caught up on the days I've missed asap and before I start falling any further behind, but I have the ACT in the morning and a Spanish test in the afternoon so I have to go to sleep early and can't write anything else tonight (and if anyone wants to send out some prayers, good vibes, or mental encouragement balloons for those two things they would be greatly appreciated! :))
> 
> goodnight, sleep tight, don't let Zagreus bite!


End file.
